Mount Vernon's last on-duty K-9, Sito, dies

Partner says dog's handler is 'devastated'

7:53 PM,
Nov. 28, 2013

Officer Michael Kushnir and Sito, his K9 partner.

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Sito, a German shepherd that was the Mount Vernon Police Department's sole on-duty K-9, has died at the age of 10, officials said. The cause was cancer.

Sito's illness came on suddenly, said Officer Eugene Wilsea, the partner of the dog's handler, Officer Michael Kushnir, who took Sito to the Westchester Animal Hospital in Mount Vernon on Monday. At the animal hospital, Sito looked into Kushnir's eyes and acknowledged him before he died.

"He's devastated," Wilsea said of Kushnir. "I lost my dog last year. It's as bad as losing a child." ...